The present disclosure relates to a connector assembly, and more particularly, to a header connector assembly that provides fuses to protect electronic devices from surges in electric current.
Increased fuel costs and increased efforts at reducing environmental pollution have lead the automotive industry towards electric and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). One design aspect of these vehicles is the use of relatively high operating voltage. Consequently, specific components of the vehicles must be designed to accommodate the high current that is used to transmit the high operating voltages. The electrical assemblies of these vehicles include components that operate at high voltages and require connectors that include high voltage pathways for transmitting the high current. For example, some known electrical vehicular assemblies include components that operate using up to 600 volts or at least 50 amps.
In connector applications that use high voltage, special requirements exist for providing safety to users and to prevent damage to other assembly components and the connectors themselves. For example, if a connector is unmated under active high voltage current, at the instant the mating conductors of the high voltage connector disconnect, high voltage surges may cause severe damage to the connector and/or components that are receiving the current. Consequently, in some applications, a high-voltage interlock (HVIL) circuit is used to protect the connectors and other assembly components from damage due to the high voltage power. An HVIL circuit controls the high voltage circuit so that the high voltage current is not active at the mating and unmating of high voltage conductors in the connectors that mate to convey the high current. In an HVIL circuit, the sequence of mating and unmating the high voltage conductors and the opening and closing of the HVIL circuit is controlled to stop the transmitting of high current prior to decoupling the conductors in the mating connectors and to begin transmission of high current and/or high voltage through the conductors only after the conductors are mated with one another.
Many known high voltage connectors are coupled with fuses to provide additional safeguards against power surges. For example, some known connector assemblies that mate with mating connectors may be mounted to an automotive component, such as a power distribution module, that receives and/or delivers electric current to electrical loads of the automobile. The connector assemblies may be coupled with fuses located inside the power distribution module and away from the header assembly that is mounted to the module such that electric current that passes through the header assembly from an external mating connector is conveyed across one or more of the fuses inside the module prior to being transmitted to one or more electric loads within the module.
One problem is that locating and/or installing the fuses inside the modules may increase the complexity and or the cost of the circuit. Some known fuses are mounted to a circuit board or other device that is internal to the power distribution module. If no other components are mounted to the circuit board, the mounting of the fuses to the circuit boards increases the cost of the automotive component as the circuit boards must be added to the component. Alternatively, in components that already have circuit boards, the mounting of the fuses to the circuit boards may consume valuable real estate on the circuit boards. Additionally, in order to transmit the current received by the header assembly to the fuses inside the module, additional conductive pathways, such as conductive wires, must be added to the module in order to electrically couple the conductors in the header assembly with the fuses.
Another problem is that some known modules receive relatively high current and distribute the current among several other modules and/or electric loads. For example, a module may receive current through a header assembly and convey the current across several conductors located inside the module and separate from the header assembly. The conductors are used to divide the current before distributing the current among electric loads located within or outside of the module. The inclusion of these conductors inside the module can increase the cost and/or complexity of the module.